Company ready to pay compensation

TENGY Cement Ltd will pay compensation for the loss of any archaeological sites on a parcel of land they intended to extract limestone from.

Tengy’s counsel, Joshika Priya Prasad, from Chand and Young Lawyers, said this when Tengy’s appeal of their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for a parcel of land leased for limestone extraction at Wainivimili, Wainivesi, Sawakasa, Tailevu — which was not approved by the Department of Environment (DOE) — was called before Magistrate Ropate Green in the Environment Tribunal.

The DOE did not approve the EIA on the grounds that these were sites of archaeological interest and historical importance, where the remains and historical evidence of the area’s original settlers in the area were.

It also had endemic tree frogs in the area. It was also rejected on the grounds that reservations had been expressed about the desecration of the old village sites for a proposed quarry, as recorded in three separate consultations on the EIA report.

The tribunal was told that Tengy had already begun work on the proposed limestone extraction without an EIA and some of the archaeological sites were destroyed, although Tengy says this desecration was done earlier by loggers.

Ms Prasad told the tribunal that a report by the Fiji Museum found there were no archaeological sites or tree frogs in the area, and had there been any, Tengy would have paid compensation for their destruction.

She said the director of the DOE failed to adhere to the procedures of the Environmental Management Act and if the procedures outlined in the Act were followed, the grounds for refusing the EIA report would have been found to be invalid.

She also said the DOE had taken a bond of over $42,000 and this should not have been the case if the EIA was going to be refused.

State solicitor Vimal Ram said the cheque refunding the bonding had been ready for collection for over a year but the company had not collected it.

The matter will be called for judgment on January 27, 2023.